Rail-joint and bar therefor



Dec. 11, 1934. R. F. GREENWOOD 1,983,752

RAIL JOINT AND BAR THEREFOR Original Filed Nov. 12, 1931 11;:l VII/mm L Q A 7 I h T} 9 ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 11, 1934 PATENT other.

RAIL-JOINT AND BAR-THEREFOR Richard Greenwood,

to tandard Ecuipme Maryland New York, N. Y., assignor nts, Inc, a corporation of Application November 12, 1931, Serial No. 574,492

Renewed Maya, 1934 7 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in railjoints and therefor.

One of the objects of this invention is to pro vide a rail-joint structure which will have an element of flexibility similar to the flexible structure of a continuous rail and particularly to improve upon that type of rail-joint having railjoint composed of flexible or resilient metal and provided with a relatively rigid and thick medial section formed integrally with end sections which are conventionally thinner and more flexible or resilient.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a rail-joint bar of the type specified with a plur hty of faces, which faces when bolts are applied thereto and the bars are bolted into position, cause the bar to be interlocked with the joined rail-ends and at the same time will enable the joined structure to be raised or lowered by adjustably applying spring tension through the wing ends of the bar.

Another object of my invention is to provide a resilient member at the joined steel ends which will efficiently take care of the condition known shock impact which is due to the pocketing of the wheels of the motive power equipment at the joint and which condition isdue to noncontinuity of the conventional types of angle bars, which give way and drop when the load strikes them producing a dead beam effect. This weakness allows the rail-ends to be depressed.

much lower than at any other surface along the top head of the rail and which in turn allows the driver-wheels of the motive power equipment to pocket aforesaid.

Another feature of this invention is to provide joint elements which will cushion the load under the positive cycle oi bending moment and which willprovide sufiicient tenacity and flexibility to cause the said element to return to its original positionand thereupon also to provide against negative bending moment during the rapid alternation oi the positive and negative cycles.

Still another feature of my invention is the provision of a rail-joint bar or bars together with the means for applying the same, which will be capable of connectingthe rails in such a manner as to cause the wave motion to run from one rail-end and into the adjoining without anyin terruption and passing through the joint structure as if it were continuous, steel.

In the preferred form of my invention, the rail bar is provided with a plurality of faces andpreferably disposed in inclined relationship to a plane perpendicular to the base of the rail and the'bolting arrangement with respect to the said faces as well as the tension applied by such bolts to flexible wing ends integral with the bar provides a structure that will to a marked degree, function as a live joint.

In this preferred construction, the semi-rigid central section of the-bar contacts with the head, web and the flange of the'rail and prevents any possible independent movement of the rails at their joining and experience has shown that a joint structure of my approved design will not onlyj-to a marked degree, eliminate end batter but when bars of my design are applied to old worn and batteredsteel rails, these rail ends are so held and maintained that the rolling stock passing over the jcint has a tendency to roll out end batter, thus providing a level surface across the joint and enabling great economies to result from the use of my invention, as the rails may remain in the track much longer than heretofore.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention, the rail-joint comprises in combination a simple beamtype of-bar comprising the semi-rigid middle portion, which is relatively strong and durable, combined with-portions having spring ten sion principally residing in the wing ends and possessing thegreat advantage of being capable of adjustably raising or crowning either the delivering or receiving rails or both to the much desired-surface level-and thus improving the condition conventionally present in rail-joints formed with paralleldead beam typeof bars and also eliminating the characteristic low joint and loose bolts caused by independent movement of the entire joint structure known as vertical action.

With these and other objects in View, the invention comprises the combination of members and arrangement oi parts so combined as to 00- act and co-operate with each other in the performance of the functions and the accomplishment of the results herein contemplated, and comprises in one ofits adaptions the species or preferred form illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:-

Fig. 1 is a horizontal section through a rai1- joint embodying my invention, the rail-joint bars having bolts inserted but not tightened;

Fig. 21s a side elevation of the rail-joint shown in Fig.1; r

"Fig. '3 is a section on the line'33 of Fig. looking in the direction of the arrow;

Fig. 4 is a section on the'line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

Fig.5 isasection on the line 5-5 of Fig. lookingin'the direction of the arrow;

Fig. 6 is a section on the line 6-6 of Fig. 2 looking in the direction of the arrow;

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 1 Showing bolts drawn tight; n

Fig. 8 is a View similar to Rig. 2 showing the position of the parts of the bars when bolts have been tightened up.

Figs. 9 and 10 are sections on the'lines 9-9 and 10-l0 of Fig. 8, looking in the directions of the arrows. V

Referring now to the drawing, which illustrates a preferred embodiment of my invention, 1 and 2 indicate rails, the ends of which it is desired to join, and 3 indicates a rail joint bar the medial or central section of which is disposed or extended across the meeting line of the rail ends and is inserted between the flanges 1' and the heads 1 of such rail-ends. A pair of these bars is preferably employed at each joint one member of the pair being disposed on each side of the rail ends.

In accordance with my invention, each of the bars 3 comprises medial section 4 of heavy semi-rigid construction and end sections 5--5, preferably of thinner and more flexible conformation. The medial section 4 is provided in its normal unattached form with a cambered, bowed or arched top portion 4. This top portion 4 is set directly beneath the joint between the ends of the rails. The inner web-contacting surface and the flllet-contacting portion of the semirigid medial section are also preferably cambered and contact with the webs and fillets of the rail ends and the bottom surface of the bar contacts with inclined surfaces l 'of the flanges 1' of the rails l with the flanges.

The bar 3 is preferably formed of a steel drop' 'rail ends but also to be capable of exerting a powerful spring tension at the rail ends and to enable such spring tension to be produced in the bar. This spring tension is preferably produced e in a bar of the character described by including on the outer surface of the bar a plurality of in clined faces preferably extending above and below the horizontal axis line of the bar. Two inclined faces 5-6 are preferably provided at the medial section'of the bar and;these faces preferably extend or slant outwardly from a plane perpendicular to the base of the rail, and at the end portions of the bar two inclined faces '77 are provided which extend or slant inwardly from a plane erected perpendicular to the base of the rail at the outer face of the said bar. The inclined faces of the medial section and of the end sections will thus converge towards each other at the bottom of the bar.

The inclined faces 66, 7-7 of bars so constructed are arranged to cooperate with two pairs of bolts G -6 and 7 'l The bolts 6 6 passing through the medial portion are arranged above the bolts 'Z Y which pass through the wing ends. Bolt holes 66 for the bolts passing through the medial section of the bar preferably are positioned above the horizontal center line of the bar and cooperate with bolts in the wing ends arranged in a plane below the bolt holes in the medial section and preferably below the horizontal middle line of the bar. Said bolt holes and bolts are thus preferably so arranged with relation to bolt holes in the rails that when the bolts are tightened up to bring the inclined faces to parallelism, the medial portion of the bar will be clamped by bolts disposed above the center line of the bolt holes 8-8 in the rail ends adjacent to said medial section and the end sections will be clamped bybolts extending below the center line of the holes 99 in the rails which cooperate with the holes in said end sections.

In the said construction of rail joint bar, the bolts in the medial section cooperate with the inclined face thereof upon tightening up of the said bolts to cause the top portion of the bar to oscillate inwardly and the bolts at the end sections cooperate with the inclined faces on such sections to oscillate the ends of the bar upwardly and inwardly at its outer face. The bottom face contacts with the slope or incline of the rail flange, and the ends move up the incline, causing the bar as a whole to be oscillated or moved in bow fashion on said incline and in torsion. The bottom surface of the bar will thus contact with said inclined surface ofthe flange at varying levels. 7

A'bar of the type specified will cause the securing bolts in cooperation with the inclined surfaces to have a tendency to straighten out the cambered surfaces on the bar so as to produce at the top, fillet-contacting and inner surfaces, the

faces of which extend rectilinearly lengthwise and in cross-section extend from vertical to horizontal planes. Such bolting will cause the center bolts to press the bar inwardly while the end bolts pull the bar upwardly when pressure is applied through such bolts to the inclined faces which, as aforesaid, converge. in relation to each other toward the bottom or base of the bar. It will be understood that the medial bolts 6 6 will, in

cooperation with the inclined or slanting face, effect an inward and downward movement of the medial section of the bar and the end bolts 7 7 will, in cooperation with the inclined faces in said end sections effect a movement inwardly and up-- wardly of such end sections, thus producing torsional movement of the bar as a whole.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention, the medial section 4 having the central bolts G -6 will be provided with a middle portion which is wider or thicker at its top than at its bottom and the outer surface of said top portion will preferably be inclined a few, say 2 or 3 degrees, outwardly from a plane perpendicular to the base of the rail and furthermore said central section will have sufficient body and dimensions to engage the entire fishing area of the rail ends, and the tension applied through the center bolts will cause the upper surface of the bar to move into engagement with the upper fillet-portions of the rail ends, and also to engage the surface beneath the head or ball of the rail.

A bar of the character described will not only in combination with the bolts actuate the middle and end sections of the bar to move in the way specified, but will provide an interlocking connection or engagement in the interstices between the head and flange of the rail and said bolts being always held normally in tension cannot be come loose so as to render the bar ineffective in its function of holding the rail ends in proper alignment both laterally and horizontally.

It will be seen also that, owing to the clamping of the medial section of the bar at the upper section of the bolt holes of the rail ends and the clamping of the end sections of the bar at the lower section of the bolt holes of the rail ends, these rail ends will be further. interlocked and caused to move in unison under the dynamic forces.

In the accompanying drawing, I have in Fig. 2 shown the inclined faces at medial sections and at the ends of the bars. In the sectional view, Fig. 3, I have in dot and dash lines 10 indicated the inward inclined plane of said end faces. I have also in said Fig. 3 indicated by perpendicular dot and dash lines 11 a perpendicular plane extending from the face of the rail upwardly, thus showing a difference or variation between the inclined face at the ends of the bar and the perpendicular plane of substantially two degrees. In Fig. 5, I have shown a medial inclined face and have indicated the outward inclination of said face from the perpendicular plane 11 by dot and dash lines 12, said inclination outwardly from the perpendicular being, as shown, substantially one degree. I have also shown in said Fig. 5 in dotted lines the position of the end face and have, in dot and dash lines 10, also indicated the position of said end face in relation to the same perpendicular, thus showing that one pair of said faces extends to one degree on one side of the perpendicular plane and the other pair extends two degrees on the opposite side thereof,

making in all a variation or difference between said faces of three degrees, which variation, I find, will be suficient to produce the results hereinabove specified.

In Figs. '7 to 10 I have shown the position oit' said bars when the bolts are under tension and in Figs. 8-10 inclusive, I have shown the posi-' tions of the faces and bolts when said bolts are full tensioned to bring the inclined faces of the said bar into parallelism as shown in Fig. 10

whereupon the effect and results hereinabove specified will be produced and particularly the canibered top portion will be straightened out into a plane surface and the fillet-contacting and inner web-contacting portions will similarly be straightened out to lie in contact with the surfaces of the rail while an interlocking connection will be effected between the bar on the one hand and the flanges and heads of the rail ends on the other hand. It will be noted from Fig. 2 that the pair of central bolts are out of horizontal alignment with the end bolts and in Fig. 8 thatthe bolts in the central or medial section of the bar and the bolts in the end section have, by tightening, been caused to move relatively to each other so that the axes of all four bolts lie in a common horizontal plane. This shifting of the bolts causes, as aforesaid, the medial bolts to lie in the top portion of the bolt holes in the rail ends and the end bolts to lie in the bottom portion of the bolt holes in the rail ends, thus producing a further interlocking engagement between the bar and the rail ends.

When bars of the type specified are applied and tensioned as hereinabove described, the rail endswill be maintained at the proper surface level. Also, I produce a bar of the type specified which will produce a joint closely aproaching the conditions which would obtain with continuous steel rails; I produce a bar of the type specified which will function as a live joint-bar providing adjustable tension to be applied at the joint; I produce a bar of the type specified having the relatively rigid medial section initially cambered or bowed at its top portion and combined with relatively resilient end sections having a bottom, flange-contacting surface, which in the normal or inital form of the bar, before application to the rail, is substantially rectilinear and is adapted upon tightening up by bolts to travel inwardly and upwardly on the flange of the rail, to be convexed during such movement at the middle portion which contacts with the joined ends, and to cause the cambered top portion to assume a rectilinear position substantially tangential to the initial camber or how of said top portion. I provide increased supporting contact of said top portion of said medial section of the rail-joint bar with the under surface of the rail-head, to cause such rail joint bars to have a frictional and resilient interlocking engagement between the heads and flanges of the rail ends at and adjacent to the joint. I provide a construction in which the portion of the rail bar immediately beneath the joined ends of the rail will be subjected to the normal tension employed and will have a tendency to slightly crown the joint. I provide a bar in. which the tension tending to vertical bowing which is applied on the bar through the bolts will increase toward the vertical median line of bar which is directly beneath the joint and will decrease in intensity toward the ends. I provide a bar which will eniciently take care of the condition known as shock impact which is due to the pocketing of the wheels of the motive power equipment at the joint and which condition is due to noncontinuity of the conventional types of angle bars, which give way and drop when the load strikes them and produce a dead beam effect. This weakness allows the rail-ends to be depressed much lower than'at any other surface along the ball or head of the rail and which in turn allows the driver-wheels'of the motivepower equipment to pocket aforesaid; which will cushion the load under the positive cycle of bending moment and will provide suflicient tenacity and flexibility to cause the said element to return to its original position and said structure is designed to function as an element of fiexure during the rapid alterations of the positive and negative bending moment cycles; and I further provide a rail-joint bar or bars together with the means for applying the same, which will be capable of connecting the rails in such a manner as to cause the wave motion to run from one rail end into the other without interruption through a resilient joint structure, producing as near as possible a continuous rail with characteristics of flexibility comparative with the other portions of the rail.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made Without departing from the scope thereof it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A rail-joint embodying a rail-joint bar embodying a relatively rigid medial section having at its outer surface inclined faces and end sections of relative flexibility having inclined faces varying in angularity from the inclined faces of the medial section, the inclined faces of said medial section extending outwardly from a vertical plane perpendicular to the base of the rail and the inclined faces of the end sections extending inwardly from the vertical plane perpendicular to the base of the rail, and bolt holes in said faces to cause the same to move into parallelism.

2. A rail-joint embodying a rail-joint bar embodying a relatively rigid medial section having at its outer surface inclined faces and end seci inclined faces on the medial section, and bolt holes in said inclined faces.

3. A rail-joint embodying a bar provided on.

its outer bolt-contact surface along its length with faces inclined vertically from a plane perpendicular to the base of the rail, the verticallyinclined faces in one section of the bar being so disposed as to vary from the vertically-inclined faces in the other portion of the bar, bolt holes in said inclined faces and bolts co-operating with said inclined faces to cause the bar at the top of one section to oscillate inwardly toward the railhead and the bottom of another section to oscillate inwardly and upwardly.

4. A rail-joint embodying a rail-bar having a middle section and end sections each provided on its outer bolt-contact surface with faces in vertically-inclined relationship to each other, the vertically-inclined faces in the end section being disposed in angular relationship to the vertically-inclined faces in the end sections, bolt holes in said faces and bolts passing through said holes and cooperating with said faces to oscillate the bar at its bottom surface inwardly and upwardly along the flange of the rail in bow fashion and in torsion.

5. A rail-joint embodying a rail-bar having a middle section and end sections each provided at its outer surface with faces in inclined relationship to each other, the faces in the end section being disposed in angular relationship to the faces in the end sections, bolt holes in said faces, bolts passing through said holes and cooperating with said faces to oscillate the bottom face of the bar inwardly and upwardly along the flange of the rail in how fashion and in torsion, said bar having at its top a cambered portion, and the tightening of said bolts cooperating with said faces having a tendency to straighten out said camber to provide a face tangential to the apex thereof and contacting with the bottom surface of the head of the rail While the bottom of the bar contacts with the flange of the rail.

6. A rail-joint embodying a rail-bar having a middle section and end sections each provided at its outer surface with faces in inclined relationship to each other, the faces in the end section being disposed in angular relationship to the faces in the medial section, bolt holes in said faces, bolts passing through said holes and co operating with said faces to oscillate the bottom face of the bar inwardly and upwardly along the flange of the rail in bow fashion and in torsion, said bar having at its top middle portion a camber and also having at its inner surface a cam-. ber and said bolts being arranged to cooperate with the angular faces to straighten out the top cambered face into a substantially horizontal plane contacting with the bottom of the rail head and causing the camber on the inner surface also to be straightened out in a rectilinear plane contacting with the web of the bar.

7. In a rail-joint a resilient bar having at its outer bolting surface a plurality of plane faces inclined with respect to a vertical plane perpendicular to the base of the rail to slant outwardly at its medial section and inwardly at its end sections and bolts in said bar cooperating with said faces to cause bolts at the middle section to oscillate to cause the ends of the bar to oscillate oppositely from the middle portion and in- Wardly at the bottom of the bar to provide a retaining interlock between the sets of medial and end bolts.

RICHARD F. GREENWOOD. 

